Betrayal
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: As they approach the Engineer's planet, Dr Elizabeth Shaw is horrified by the changes in David's personality, but even she doesn't expect it to go so far.


I own nothing of the Alien franchise, I regret to say.

Please feel free to let me know what you think.

* * *

Betrayal.

As she strained against the tight straps holding her down to the workbench while she waited for David to return from the horror he was about to release on the Engineers, Elizabeth was disappointed that the ancient civilisation who had constructed this ship and seeded life on millions of planets, including her own, had not found a way around the need to have hyper-sleep chambers on their ships in order to shield their crew and passengers from the effects of faster than light propulsion.

Humanity's discovery of FTL would always be one of the greatest achievements next to artificial gravity mastery since those two achievements had allowed Man to leave the cradle of Sol and explore the galaxy, but the effects such travel had on living tissue and the minds of anyone unprotected from the Faster than Light drives had dampened those hopes until hyper-sleep had been perfected and refined to the point where it could be cheaply installed on starships.

She was just disappointed that for such an ancient culture who had mastered the secrets into creating _life _itself and even seeding it on different _worlds, _the Engineers had not found a way around space-flight where the need for suspended animation was required. She couldn't help but feel that if she had been awake during the trip then she may have found a way to stop David from turning on her so quickly shortly after leaving her hyper-sleep chamber after she had recorded a transmission to send back to Earth.

She hadn't noticed anything odd about the synthetic; sure, his manner had shifted from something resembling a curious child to a cynical, sullen teenager, but she hadn't paid it much mind. She had just assumed in the time he had spent alone, without any of the Prometheus' entertainment facilities to keep him occupied though he would have had plenty of time to study the technology and the language of the alien ship they had salvaged after that mess on LV-223, but truthfully it had never occurred to her what the effects of isolation and loneliness where there were no other androids to interact with or even any humans around to tell him what to do would have on David. Elizabeth even wondered if the repairs she'd made to him after he had been torn in half when that angry Engineer had attacked him had a cause in his drastic change in behaviour, or if the android had some hideous flaw. Synthetic tech was brand new. There were bound to be glitches, but there were flaws and faults and there was this….

Now she knew what the time alone had done to him.

It had made David insane.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and remembered that meal of concentrates and water she'd had shortly after she had revived and how David had stared at her unblinkingly the whole time, though there had been something in his expression she had not been able to identify.

Finally, she'd had enough. David had been creepy in the past, but this was going too far in her mind, but at the time she had not paid any real attention to the androids' stare.

"Stop staring at me, David," she'd ordered him.

Her voice had been harsh at the time, but it had the effect she'd wanted. David had come out of his trance. "My apologies, Doctor Shaw," he had said. And with that, he had prepared to go on his way, but she had stopped him.

"I'm sorry, David," she'd said, feeling instantly guilty with the way she had spoken to her fellow survivor of the Prometheus. "I didn't mean to snap. It's just you were making me uncomfortable."

A thin smile had crossed the android's face. "My own apologies for making you uncomfortable," he had said, but at the time Elizabeth had picked up on something she couldn't work out, though it seemed a bit like sarcasm bordering on insolence. But at the time she had simply thought nothing of it, and just assumed David was getting used to having her around again.

She had changed the subject. "Are we nearly there?" she'd asked.

David hadn't needed to ask for clarification of where 'there' was. He knew she meant the Engineer's planet. "Yes," he had said simply.

Elizabeth flexed her fingers to try to maintain her circulation, wincing a little at the cramp she was experiencing. She had no idea how long she had been lying on the bench for. It felt like hours, though truthfully it could have been half an hour while she remembered that had led to her capture.

Elizabeth had told David to meet her on the bridge so they could discuss options for taking the ship into orbit and communicating with the Engineers, only to discover the android was not there. Confused she had looked everywhere that she could get access to while trying hard not to let the strangeness of the alien ship get to her.

The Engineers penchant for creation of life were they tinkered with DNA codes seemed to have been reflected in the design of their spaceships, giving the impression of a ship grown rather than constructed. Whereas a human ship in comparison came with bright interior lights and came with a submarine atmosphere, the Engineer ship was dark, grown and sinister. Still, she did manage to find David after about an hour, though what she had found him doing was horrifying. When she and David had first commandeered this ship, they had explored every part of it while using the synthetic's insights into the alien's language and technology to make it easier. That knowledge served Elizabeth well, and it wasn't long before the scientist had exhausted all but one room.

The place in the ship containing that black liquid which had created those monstrous lifeforms and killed her crew. Elizabeth had cautiously gone into that room, mentally praying David wouldn't be in there although logically there was no reason for him to go there in the first place, and they both knew it. She hoped he was looking for her in another part of the ship, only she hadn't seen him. But she knew he was there.

She walked inside… only to stop in shock when she saw him working with the black liquid canisters.

"What are you doing?" she'd demanded.

David had stopped and looked at her. "You should not have come here, Doctor Shaw," the synthetic had said in the usual cool, bland manner she had come to associate him with.

"Why, just what are you doing, David?" she'd asked.

David stood up from his work. Elizabeth had shuddered at the look in his face. Although usually wearing a bland, unemotional expression, there was a sneer playing on his features. "You should be able to work that out," he said. "You, who wants to understand more about life and evolution itself. I am merely giving the process a push, that is all."

"A push?" Suddenly she came to understand the meaning behind David's words. "You're going to wipe them out, aren't you?" she said, looking at the synthetic with horror as she worked out what he was planning.

David's sneer transformed into a genuine smile that made his expression more sinister in this light. "Very good," he'd said in agreement.

Suddenly David was on her before she could move or even think of a way she could fight him, and she barely had time before blackness clouded her vision. The last thing she had seen when she fell unconscious was the sight of David's bland features standing close to her.

Elizabeth sighed as she tried to test the straps again, but the strong material they were made from reminded her of plastic although it was organic in appearance. she had no idea where David had found it, but after spending a lot of his time alone on the ship while she was locked away in a hyper-sleep chamber, he would have had time to look through everything the Engineers had.

She remembered how she'd woken up and how she'd struggled against the bonds, only to discover the material holding her down was so tough it was like trying to work your way out of a metal chain. In the end, she had given up.

She stiffened when her ears which were now hypersensitive in her current position registered the sounds of someone walking closer. She kept very still when the tall, lean figure of David stood over her.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to give evolution a push?" she asked, hoping to gain some insight into the synthetics plans.

"Humanity and the Engineers have had their time," the synthetic replied shortly and brusquely, making her blood go cold at what she was hearing, noticing the change in David's otherwise bland, emotionless manner at once. It terrified her. This was a nightmare. For a long time, many people had debated about the dangers of installing AI into the minds of the synthetics, but Elizabeth had never imagined it coming out like this. But this was even worse because David actually did have the power to wipe out life, setting himself up as a god or something.

The synthetic turned to walk away but then he paused and looked back. "I shall let you know when I have completed Step One of my plan," he said, "and when I shall proceed to Step Two."

"What's Step Two?" Elizabeth's mouth was dry.

David's voice was cold. "Your death, of course. I need something to work on, a blank canvas from where to take my work."

Elizabeth screamed at him. But it did not good. She was trapped and the straps holding her down were too tough for her to fight to get free. David tutted at her. "Calm down," he said soothingly although the intentions he had belied the sudden kindness in his words before he walked away.

Elizabeth cried herself hoarse before she exhausted herself, and when David returned she couldn't pretend to put up much effort to stop him…


End file.
